I know that Brandon Ellis is an elite player, but listen to how smooth this is…
Ok so I was curious to get ‘under the hood’ here and I transcribed the bits of this that seemed to be the most economy picking, and I think in a way he’s kind of making my point, and also emphasizes the point in @Fossegrim 's last paragraph of his last comment.
Transcription here at this link:
(edit: added image:
)
If you look at where the slurs are placed, and where there actually are sweeps here, his approach here avoids that tricky changing-direction issue I’ve mentioned, which I think is the hardest part.
I have more comments but I’ve gotta run - transcribed this when I was supposed to be doing something else (“LOL”) but thought I’d throw it up here as it might be helpful.
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That solo he plays in the clip sounds kinda weird on its own. I’m sure it sounds great in context.
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2:10 here for reference:
for what it’s worth the bit transcribed is just a big Ebm7b5 arpeggio sequenced up, then a Cm7b5 going down, then Ebm7 going up.
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Thanks so much for transcribing this!
It all sounded so smooth to me, that I thought he was using pure sweeping. To my ears the line you transcribed it almost synth-like because it’s so smooth. His placement of hammer-ons and pull-offs is interesting. He is combining an Yngwie-like pull-off / hammer-on escape approach with the even economy picking of Michael Romeo and Frank Gambale.
Here’s the lick I promised, The audio isn’t great because I just used my phone and then converted it to a video format. it’s kind of Paul Gilbert/Racer X sounding, using a harmonic Minor sequence. It’s a good example of what I was talking about earlier by combining economy picking with other things like legato in a complimentary way to facilitate the lick. But before posting any notation, I was going to ask if there is any interest in it before I transcribe it as it’s rather odd in note groupings and I don’t really want to go through the motions if there is no interest and nobody wants to learn it.
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@JakeEstner. Well, I have been trying to play the lick with economy picking, but it’s just not working! I’ve been using hybrid picking for so long that it appears my body just defaults to hybrid and hammer ons / pull offs!
here is a video:
I’m curious, have you tried it with the exact same strokes and slurs as he does (assuming my transcription is accurate) ?
Just wanted to clarify as I could interpret the phrasing of your comment a few different ways.
Go slow. The first 4 notes of each dimished segment try playing with alternate picking, and then only do the economy part when you hit the three string crosses in those sections. It may be easier to time and keep even at first doing that.
Good exercises for improving your timing and rhythmic accuracy are:
- different rhythms- if straight 16s, try swinging it, or do long-short-short etc. The idea is that by using different rhythms, you concentrate on different parts of what you’re playing
- same with accents — hit different parts with an accent, eg on all odd notes, etc. Again to explore different parts you might be somehow glossing over
- volume control - go louder, then softer
- etc
I wrote about a these in the techniques of my little ebook site, Practicing Guitar — Practicing Guitar documentation
All of these techniques assume that you’re good and relaxed and can play it slowly and evenly with very relaxed hands arms shoulders etc (well, “relaxed” might not be the best term, perhaps appropriately activated but still loose). Cheers! Z
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Here’s a more stripped down lick of the one I originally posted. I realized it wasn’t perhaps the best one to start with given the nature of the thread. This one uses a small diminished fragment played using straight 16ths. And is meant to be a little easier to play than both mine and the one @JakeEstner transcribed from Brandon. The basis of the lick is this repeating half/whole diminished fragment below:
The idea is that you can cycle the two phrases if you want and come up with something close to this. This is that same lick above just cycled a few times on each fragment ( 4 times on the first half, twice on the second and I did just descend straight back on the scale to give it a finish, but you can figure out that part, or come up with something else). This small fragment can provide hours of creepy fun.
Here it is slower so you can hear the initial phrasing of it. This follows the tab exactly.
I might just repost this as one of the weekly licks (or at this point every other month lick) in the show and tell.
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sounds really good. it sounds like you’re alternate picking the whole lick, rather than adding a pull off when going from high strings to lower strings.
Yeah I listened to this the other day and forgot to comment. Excellent playing, as always @Fossegrim
My immediate reaction was how even and articulated everything sounds. I only detect (a very human) drift if I slow the audio way down. And that’s not a criticism by any means. MAB and Yngwie and all the other monsters always get a free pass…try slowing down stuff in their instructional videos to 25% speed and you’ll hear a drift there too 
Anyway, well done. Right in line with the thread title 
That (well to me at least) is kind of the point. It’s more to use economy picking to better facilitate something than it is for a distinct tonal reason. Some might have other perspectives on it, and some may just accept that a byproduct of economy picking is that it might sound distinct from pure alternate picking, but my view on it is that you don’t have to accept that if you don’t want to, and can just be utilized as a tool to get you where you want to go.
There’s a very audible time drift half way through it that I just didn’t bother fixing, I was going to just call it rubato lol! But I suppose if I put it on a click it would have been more even, I just didn’t feel it was all that necessary to bother and I liked the effect in hindsight.
Yep. I know Anton Oparin stays away from sweep/economy for the most part claiming it’s never as even as the pure alternate stuff he’s so good at. He probably can hear the difference better than I can. I think comparing 2 players who are elite at both, it’s so minimal that we’ve gotta make that tough decision if it’s worth our time to do…whichever of the 2 is more difficult for us “Just because” haha
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Well I would say the reason is because it has a tendency to not be as accented as pure alternate picking, but imho there is no real reason it can’t be. It really just depends like everything really, on what you want to use it for. At the end of it, you get to decide on how to you employ it, not someone else.